Your writing is yours, and you can always take it with you. This page covers every way out of MechaSquid and what each file holds, automatic backups to your Google Drive, bringing a book in, getting deleted pages back, and deleting a book or your whole account.
Export a book
Open the book's Settings and go to Export. First choose the author name the file carries: one of your pen names, or your own name. Then choose a format. Each file is made on the spot, and its download link is private and works for one hour. Export always works, even if your access to MechaSquid has ended.
- Markdown: the book's chapters in order with their scenes, as plain text that any editor opens. Links become plain names. When the text has pictures, it comes as a zip with the text and a folder of pictures.
- EPUB: an ebook that any e-reader opens, with the book's cover (the main picture on its Book page) and the pictures in its text. If you have prepared the ebook on the Publish page, the EPUB comes as you prepared it, with its front and back pages and its look (the publishing guide).
- Word (.docx), in one of two kinds. Manuscript format, for agents and editors is what literary agents and editors ask for: Times New Roman or Courier New at 12 pt, double-spaced, a running head with your surname and the page number, each chapter on a new page, # between scenes, and a title page with the word count and your contact details. Those details come from your Account page, under For submissions, and are printed nowhere else. Reading copy is a book-like Word file for a reader who asks for one. In both, a picture appears as "[Picture: caption]".
- Obsidian vault (whole world, with pictures): everything in the world, not only the open book. See Take everything to Obsidian.
Every book export leaves out scenes with no text yet, and scenes that are in no chapter, which it names. Your plans, comments and wiki stay out of the book files; the vault holds them.
Take everything to Obsidian
The vault is a zip of notes, one per page, that Obsidian or another notes app opens as it is. Characters, places, lore and the rest each get a folder; each book gets a folder with a folder per chapter and a note per scene, in reading order. Links between pages stay links, relationships become properties of the note, and pictures come along at full size, so Obsidian's graph shows your world.
Your maps, goals, publishing details, comments and voice rules come too, in a folder called _loom that MechaSquid reads. Only the history of earlier versions and what is in the trash are left out.
Export everything
On your Account page, under Your data, Export everything makes one zip of every world you have, each as an Obsidian vault with its pictures, maps, comments, goals and publishing details, plus your voice rules for all your books and your details for submissions. Only the history of earlier versions is left out. The download link is private and works for one hour.
Back up automatically
MechaSquid can put a copy of everything in your Google Drive once a week, so you never have to remember. On your Account page, under Backups (shown once you have a book), choose Connect Google Drive. You are sent to Google to agree; when Google asks, tick the box that lets MechaSquid keep files in your Drive. Back on MechaSquid, the first backup is made at once, and the message that follows says where it went.
- What it holds: the same zip as Export everything: every world with its pictures, maps and comments, your voice rules and your details for submissions, which MechaSquid and Obsidian both open.
- Where it goes: in Google Drive, a folder called "MechaSquid backups". MechaSquid can see only the files it made there, nothing else in your Drive.
- What it is called: the date and time it was made, in UTC, such as "MechaSquid backup 2026-10-15 0430.zip".
- How many: the last four are kept and older ones removed; in Google Drive they go to its trash.
- Only when something changed: if nothing in your account has changed since the last backup, no new copy is made, so the four you keep are four different moments. If nobody opens MechaSquid and nothing changes for two months, backups rest; they go on by themselves once you are back or something changes.
Once connected, Backups says where backups go, when the last one was made and how large it was, and when the next one follows. Open the folder opens it in Google Drive, and Back up now makes one at once, unless nothing has changed since the last.
If a backup fails, Backups says why, with Try again, and the next attempt is made the next day. MechaSquid also emails you once, if your address is verified. If Google no longer accepts MechaSquid's backups (you removed its access there, for instance), Backups says so, with Connect again.
Disconnect asks first, then stops the backups. The backups already made stay in your Google Drive. You can also remove MechaSquid's access from your Google account's own settings.
Import a book
Choose Import a book on your dashboard to bring in a draft you have already written. MechaSquid reads Word (.docx), EPUB, Markdown, plain text, or a Scrivener project (its folder, or a zip of it). From Google Docs or Pages, export the book as Word first; PDF and Kindle files cannot be read. The file is read in your browser, and nothing is saved until you choose Import the book.
- Under Where it goes, choose A new book of its own, or one of your worlds, where it becomes another book (a sequel, a prequel) sharing that world's wiki.
- Check the chapters. They come from headings (Heading 1 or 2 in Word, # or ## in Markdown) and from lines such as "Chapter 3" or "Prologue"; a line with only
***ends a scene. Parts that look like a title page or a contents list are left out, with Keep it beside each. - Sort the names MechaSquid found: choose Character, Place, Group, Object or Lore for each one worth a page, or Leave out. The first mention of each page in every scene becomes a link. Importing into a world, names that already have a page there start as Already in this world: their mentions link to that page, and nothing on it changes.
From Scrivener, the Draft is the book: its folders are chapters and each text is a scene. Synopses become plans; labels, status and keywords become labels; document notes and comments become comments; your character, place and world-building folders become pages. Research, pictures, snapshots, documents not included in compile and Scrivener's trash stay out, and the page says how many.
Keep the page open while it saves. The new pages start empty; afterwards, the book's Overview offers to fill them in from the text, by your own assistant or by MechaSquid.
Get deleted pages back from the trash
Deleting a page, scene or chapter moves it to the trash for 30 days. The message that follows has Undo and Open the trash; you also reach the trash from Go to (⌘P on a Mac, Ctrl+P on Windows and Linux) and from Trash at the foot of the Wiki's list and of the Manuscript's contents. Restore brings it back as it was, with its text, history, pictures, relationships and comments. Delete for good and Empty the trash erase at once. Maps, whole books and comments do not go to the trash. More in The story bible.
Delete a book
In the book's Settings, at the bottom, choose Delete this book… (or Delete this world… when it holds several books). The dialog says what goes: every chapter and scene, wiki page, map, picture and comment, with their history. Shared copies stop working and its keys stop. Download a copy first gives you the whole thing as a vault. To confirm, type the book's title. Nothing can bring it back, and it frees a place for a new book.
Delete your account
On your Account page, under Delete your account, choose Delete my account… and type your email address to confirm. It deletes everything: every book, page, picture, comment and revision, your shared copies, connected apps and keys.
Nothing is erased for seven days. During that week nothing works but your Account page, where you can Cancel the deletion and have everything back as it was, or Export everything. If your address is verified, MechaSquid also emails you the date, with a link to cancel. After that week it is erased for good. Comments you left on other authors' books stay with them, without your name.
Your privacy
What MechaSquid keeps, who can see it and which services your browser talks to are set out in the privacy policy.